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Re: i`ve been expecting you or i`ve expected you

1)"I`ve expected you for a long time."
2) "I`ve been expecting you for a long time"?

Both are grammatically correct, but they fit better in different situations.

If you were waiting for me to come to your house, and I am very late, use 2). 2), through the use of 'been', is passive. You passively waited for me to come. I say, "Sorry, the traffic was terrible."

If I am a killer, and you are hiding from me in an anonymous village in rural Japan, then one day I knock at your door, use 1). 1) is more active, you were actively thinking, and expecting, I would find you one day. I say, "You knew I would find you in the end." Bang bang!!

Re: i`ve been expecting you or i`ve expected you

Originally Posted by cubezero3

I would like to know if you agree with the rest of what Bide said.Not really - we could use the progressive form quite naturally in both situations.

With this verb, the progressive form 'I have been expecting' is more likely in most situations than the non-progressive form. This is because the 'expecting' continues up to the very moment of speaking (when it ends because of the arrival of the person spoken to) or, if you are taliking to a person on the phone, the expectation has not ended yet.

In either case, we have a classic sitituation for the progressive form of the present perfect